THE 9/11 COMMISSION IN MORTAL DANGER

The Corner on National Review Online ^ | 08/11/05 | John Podhoretz

[TonyInOhio]

It behaved disgracefully and in a nakedly partisan fashion, with former officials of the Clinton administration attempting to use the platform to damage the president's reelection chances. Then, after months of ludicrous conduct, out of nowhere came the brilliantly conceived and written report that set a new standard of eloquence and coherence for government documents, became a major bestseller and redeemed the commission's reputation.

Well, that didn't last long.

In a story filed at 7:10 PM, the Associated Press is now confirming all the particulars of what will now forever be called the Able Danger disaster. The 9/11 Commission staff did hear about intelligence-gathering efforts that hit pay dirt on the whereabouts of Mohammed Atta -- in 1999 -- and deliberately chose to omit word of those efforts.

And why? Because to do so might upset the timeline the Commission had established on Atta.

And why is that significant? Because the Mohammed Atta timeline established by the Commission pointedly insisted Atta did not meet with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Prague.

And why is that significant? Because debunking the Atta-Iraq connection was of vital importance to Democrats, who had become focused almost obsessively on the preposterous notion that there was no relation whatever between Al Qaeda and Iraq -- that Al Qaeda and Iraq might even have been enemies.

I was very skeptical of this Able Danger stuff about Atta, thought it was just sme way Rep. Curt Weldon was trying to sell a book. No longer. This is clearly becoming the biggest story of the summer -- the fact that, as Andy McCarthy alluded to, the "intelligence wall" set up by 9/11 Commissioner Jamie Gorelick when she was in the Justice Department did, in fact, cause the linchpin of the 9/11 attacks to evade capture by American law enforcement.

So was the staff a) protecting the Atta timeline or b) Jamie Gorelick or c) the Clinton administration or d) itself, because it got hold of the information relatively late and the staff was lazy?

More important, what will co-chairmen Tom (pound his fist on the table) Kean and Lee (look sorrowful) Hamilton do and say in the next 36 hours about this calamity?

[Buckhead]

Nope. Wasn't asleep. Rathergate never had the potential to take down Hillary. This does.

That is just silly. This is very, very remote from Hillary. There is nothing directly connecting her to this story, and there is no chance that it will directly affect her politically.

[PhiKapMom]

Thanks! This is the most interesting thread I have been on in sometime. This is when FR shines if you ask me because everyone is adding more of the puzzle pieces.

[aposiopetic]

John Lehman - where are you? Wake up. There is work to be done here.

Wasn't there some controversy over whether -- or why -- it was Lehman who, years later, signed documents that Kerry trotted out to prove that his military service was meritorious?

[Mia T]

Reverse Gorelick

by Mia T, 4.15.04
QUINN IN THE MORNING (ESSAY DISCUSSED)
(MP3, REAL, WINDOWS MEDIA, WINAMP)

(viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE)
thanx to Fixit for the audio

Once the clintons' own U.S. attorneys were in place, once the opposition was disemboweled by the knowledge that their raw FBI files had been in the possession of the clintons, once domestic law enforcement was effectively blinded to foreign data by Gorelick's Wall, the clintons were free to methodically and seditiously and with impunity auction off America's security, sovereignty and economy to the highest foreign bidder.

 

 

e would have it backwards and miss the point entirely if we were to attribute The Gorelick Wall and the attendant metastasis of al Qaeda during the clintons' watch, (which, incidentally, was then in its incipient stage and stoppable), to the '60s liberal mindset.

Rampant '60s liberalism was not the underlying rationale for The Gorelick Wall.

Rather, The Gorelick Wall was the underlying rationale for--The Gorelick Wall was (insofar as '60s liberalism was the Wall's apparent impetus) a cynical cover for --the willful, methodical malpractice and malfeasance that was the product of the virulent clinton strain of rampant '60s liberalism.

While it is true that The Gorelick Wall was the convenient device of a cowardly self-serving president, The Wall's aiding and abetting of al Qaeda was largely incidental, (the pervasiveness of the clintons' Nobel-Peace-Prize calculus notwithstanding).

The Wall was engineered primarily to protect a corrupt self-serving president. The metastasis of al Qaeda and 9/11 were simply the cost of doing business, clinton-style.

Further confirmation of the Wall-as-cover-for-clinton-corruption thesis:

• Gorelick's failure to disclose the fact that she authored the memo that was the efficient cause of 911
• Gorelick's surreal presence on the 911 commission investigating Gorelick's Justice Department, a maneuver that effectively removes from the universe of witnesses a central witness, Gorelick, even as it uniquely positions a central player, Gorelick, to directly shape the commission's conclusions. (Is there any question which two people are responsible for Gorelick's insertion on the commission?)

Conversely, that it never occurred to anyone on the commission that Gorelick's flagrant conflict of interest renders her presence on the commission beyond farce calls into question the commission's judgment if not its integrity. Washington's mutual protection racket writ large, I suspect.

The Gorelick Wall is consistent with, and an international extension of, two essential acts committed in tandem, Filegate, the simultaneous empowering of the clintons and disemboweling of clinton adversaries, and the clinton Putsch, the firing and replacement of every U.S. attorney extant.

Filegate and the clinton Putsch,
committed in tandem,
the product of a careful criminal calculus,
at once empowered clinton
and disemboweled his opponents.
clinton was now free to betray with abandon
not only our trust,
but the Constitution as well.

The Common Man
Mia T
February, 1998

Allegations of international clinton crimes swirling around the White House in 1995 and beyond support The-Wall-as-cover-for-international-clinton-crimes thesis.

Once the clintons' own U.S. attorneys were in place, once the opposition was disemboweled by the knowledge that their raw FBI files had been in the possession of the clintons, once domestic law enforcement was effectively blinded to foreign data by Gorelick's Wall, the clintons were free to methodically and seditiously and with impunity auction off America's security, sovereignty and economy to the highest foreign bidder.

(viewing movie requires Flash Player 6, available HERE)

Also:
HILLARY'S TRIPLE PLAY
the clinton putsch + filegate + the gorelick wall

---

AFTERWORD:
We must never forget that it was hillary clinton who hired Jamie Gorelick
Gorelick proceeded to do hillary clinton's bidding, which undermined the national security and was the efficient cause of 9/11.

hillary clinton must never be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office.

COPYRIGHT MIA T 2005

[rwfromkansas]

This is from the AP story.

Some interesting tidbits here, but nothing blockbuster YET.

If somebody from Able Danger says they DID tell the commission about Atta specifically, that would be a big deal since Hamilton says they did not.

"But Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the 9/11 Commission looked into the matter during its investigation into government missteps leading to the attacks and chose not to include it in the final report.

Hamilton said 9/11 Commission staff members learned of Able Danger during a meeting with military personnel in October 2003 in Afghanistan, but the staff members do not recall learning of a connection between Able Danger and any of the four terrorists Weldon mentioned."

[NavySEAL F-16]

Could it have been Clinton's "Fight on Obesity in Kids?" by "I was a Fat Band Boy! LOL

[popdonnelly]

But now we see the fruits of Gorelick's labors. It prevented information about Atta, al-Shehhi, and two others from being shared between Defense and Justice.

[nightowl]

Fox News Channel is the only one on top of this story like they have been on the corrupt United Nations Oil for Food Scandal. The Big 3 Networks have not said a word about this 911 story. I can assure you if this had happened in 2001 under the Bush administration instead of 2000 under the Clinton bunch, it would have led the news every night for the past 4-5 days and they would be demanding independent investigations or better yet, just impeach the b***tard.

It really has bee astounding for them to seem to be just ignoring this story. Oh well, they seem to have a more scandalous story going on right now; Cindy Sheehan protesting the war outside the ranch in Crawford, Tx. I believe NBC had TWO stories about her on this evenings newscast.

Instead of these news creeps talking about the Prez's poll numbers every 10 minutes, they might take a gander at their own which is about 20 points below his.

[TASMANIANRED]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04105/300543.stm



Ashcroft testimony before the Commission..Transcript

[cookcounty]

" I agree with you about Lehman...but what if he never saw the info to begin with?"

Lehman didn't have to "see the info." Gorelick was deeply compromised by a conflict of interest obvious to the dumbest taxi driver.......and Lehman said nothing.

[LucyJo]

Who were the staffers for the Commission...dem and repub? Makes me wonder about all of them and their connections, and who knew what, and when. Not that I think all were involved in wrongdoing...just curious.

[VeniVidiVici]

bump

[cricket]

"And why is that significant? Because debunking the Atta-Iraq connection was of vital importance to Democrats,. . ."

. . .what I do NOT understand; is WHY the Repubs allowed this to 'go down'. . .rather than call this travesty for what it was. . .I mean this is not just 'farce' . . .it was closer to treason. Like the many other traitorous activities of Clinton Inc. and 'et al'. . .that have been 'forgiven' it seems.

Instead, we heard in the background - Hillary's favorite challenge. . .WHAT did HE KNOW and WHEN did (GW) know it?) and with full Demrat chorus - that, now is a standard DEm rallying cry)

Bad, evil Demrats. . .but why were/are our Repubs sooooo willing to 'let it go'. . .

As for the 'rats' ; we know they do it. . .because they can. . .

[NavySEAL F-16]

Yes, it was. Had to pay back his constituents. That's what he ran on and that's why they voted for him.

[popdonnelly]

Yeah, when is the media - or anyone else - going after the Sandy Berger story? Why was the former National Security Advisor stealing documents that he had reviewed while in office? He's not stupid, he knows the rules concerning Top Secret documents as well as anyone. I'm not assuming that he ever followed those rules.

[johnb838]

They haven't said a word about Able Danger on O'Reilly. I'ts all been Cindy Sheehan, Natalee Holloway, and The Rolling Stones. Disgusting.

[thoughtomator]

I can stop FReeping anytime I want to. Really!

[PhiKapMom]

I agree with you analysis 100% and why he didn't jump headlong into all of this. He couldn't -- had to tread very carefully.

Have to wonder if the events surrounding 9/11 starting the night before when he was in Florida and the radio silence from AF One after he left Florida on 9/11 is all tied together. Your post triggered something in my brain.

[PhiKapMom]

Makes me wonder about all of them as well -- how much info was kept from the Republican staffers is what I would like to know.